


when is a man not a man? (oh, when he has a blade in his hand)

by Anonymous



Series: Nonnie’s MCYT Fics [1]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Sleepy Bois Inc
Genre: Angst, Artistic liberties taken during the era pre-canon sbi family, Dave | Technoblade and Wilbur Soot and TommyInnit are Siblings, Hurt/Comfort, Post Wilbur’s Finale, Pre-Canon, Sbi is a family, Yes i did the math for how much TNT wilbur had, but only at the beginning, how we all feeling though?, idk what else to call it, spoiler it was 736 blocks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27599156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: This is not a nightmare. Tommy will not wake up. (Besides, Techno hasn’t been the one to comfort him after one for a long time.)
Relationships: Dave | Technoblade & TommyInnit
Series: Nonnie’s MCYT Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2089035
Comments: 7
Kudos: 361
Collections: Anonymous Fics





	when is a man not a man? (oh, when he has a blade in his hand)

“Let me tell you a story, Tommy.”

_He is eight years old, sitting on the couch. Phil isn’t home. Neither is Wilbur. He wants his brothers, he doesn’t think they’re safe._

_He is eight years old, and only Techno is home. He’s sitting in front of his youngest brother, who is crying and terrified and won’t listen. They are not close._

_All the same, Tommy is scared. All the same, it's up to Technoblade to fix it. He wracks his mind for anything that can help. Kids like stories, don’t they? But Techno only knows the greek tragedies, and a tragedy of all things won't help his little brother sleep._

_He tells a story about a boy who wanted to be a hero instead. (It’s easy to talk about a boy who wanted to be the best, who practiced in the front lawn but liked farming and hearing his brother sing better._

_It’s easy to pretend this isn’t one of the last nights Techno’s going to have in the house for a long time, and easy to pretend that he’s still the little boy in the yard who doesn’t know how old scars ache._

~~_It’s not easy to ignore the way Tommy’s eyes light up around the words ‘hero’ and ‘adventure’._ ~~ _)_

“Do you want to be a hero Tommy?”

_SMP Earth is a strange place. Techno barely knows anyone on the server. He stays though, because Phil is here, and so is Wilbur. (He asks about Tommy and Phil says the last letter he sent was from Hypixel. He wonders if he ever missed his brother in a crowd.)_

_It’s been years since he left home. But Phil looks the same and Wilbur laughs when he steals the dragon egg like he’s ‘stealing’ Techno’s favorite red blanket and things may have changed but this is still his family._

_He takes over the world with Phil and Wilbur puts them on trial and a kid named Tommy yells from the jury bench. He’s the same height as Technoblade and has bright yellow hair. Technoblade ignores the similarities._

_The trial ends and they are laughing and Phil invites Wilbur over to the Antarctic Empire._

_“Been a while since we’ve had family dinner, yeah?” His brother agrees even though he hates the cold and arrives later with Tommy-from-the-trials. Tommy-from-the-trials stares at his shoes until Wilbur riles him up and then Techno walks in like he wasn’t staring at them, like he hasn’t just realized that the Tommy on the server is his little brother, like he is unflappable and-_

_Tommy still has nightmares. Wilbur and Phil don’t wake up. His brother silently cries in a kingdom of ice and Techno hasn’t talked to him since he left home, he doesn’t have his red blanket, and he still only knows greek tragedies._

_They are not close. Technoblade puts his cape around his youngest brother because it is red and warm. He does not try to come up with a story, this time. Tommy has one to tell instead._

_Business Bay is warm and Tommy talks about it a mile a minute. He talks about his friends and the Cumin Squad with Wilbur and a boy named Tubbo in another faction across the seas._

_Techno listens with a small smile and thinks of a boy who wanted to be the hero of his own story, the boy who made it._ ~~_And Technoblade makes a mistake here. Wilbur remembers what he’s like, Phil still sees it first hand. Tommy never sees any side to him other than his_ _big_ _brother._~~

________________

Tommy’s clothes are red, his hands are red, and more than half of L’Manburg is completely gone. (Seven hundred thirty six blocks of TNT will do that to a country.) Techno’s put the soul sand for two Withers in front of them, and Tommy desperately wants it to stop.

It had been hard to ignore the memories of his older brother being just that at the festival. It is much harder now. 

_“Let me tell you a story,”_ two Technoblades say. Neither of them have a Wilbur, and neither of them have a Phil. 

One begins to talk about Theseus. It is not his big brother. This Techno slowly places skulls on top of the sand. His cape is red and matted. It’s probably blood.

One begins to talk about a boy who wanted to be a hero. They are at home, and this Techno is safe, but doesn’t exist. 

_“Sword arm up a little higher,”_ this one says. 

_“Good things don’t happen to heroes,”_ the one in front of him says.

_“Do you want to be a hero Tommy?”_ they both ask. The one that doesn’t exist wraps an imaginary red blanket around his shoulders and fades away. The one that does places the Wither skulls and turns to face him again.

The one Technoblade left looks over Tommy’s form. It does not remind him of training in the yard. It does not promise help.

It reminds him of death and a well known chant. 

_(Two Withers rise and Tommy dies._

_“Then die like one!” Technoblade says. Both of them ignore an eight year old who wanted to be the hero. He bled out on a bridge long ago, and there is no place to keep ghosts in a war._

_~~The ghost finished the job and made a country, but Tommy is the one that sits in its ruins.~~ ) _

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> HOW WE FEELING YALL IM STILL PROCESSING HAVE SOME FIC  
> Also unedited bc I have a lot of feelings about today and I wanted to write at least one.


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